Grenada has a population of around 125,000, spread across the main island and the smaller islands of Carriacou and Petit Martinique. The vast majority are of African descent, with smaller communities of mixed heritage, South Asian ancestry (descendants of indentured workers brought after emancipation), and a long-established Syrian-Lebanese merchant community.
English is the official language and widely spoken. A French-influenced Creole patois persists, particularly among older people in rural areas and on Carriacou — a legacy of French colonial control before the British took the island in 1783.
Grenadians are generally easy-going and forthcoming with visitors. The pace is unhurried. Religious life is significant: the island is predominantly Catholic, reflecting French influence, alongside a substantial Anglican and Protestant community. Sunday is taken seriously across the island.
The 1983 US intervention — prompted by a Marxist coup in which Prime Minister Maurice Bishop was killed — remains part of living memory for many Grenadians. Opinion about that period, and about the intervention itself, is divided and the topic is not off-limits in conversation. Bishop himself remains a complicated and contested figure.
Emigration has been substantial over the decades; the Grenadian diaspora in the UK, US, and Canada is large relative to the island's population. The result is an island simultaneously deeply local and internationally connected — visible in the flow of remittances, the quality of the international airport, and the enthusiasm that greets returning families during Carnival.